What is an effective facebook fan page anyway? A facebook page is effective when your posts show up in your fans feeds and when they interact with your page. The more your fans interact with your page the more likely your future posts will be included in their feed. And of course the more they interact the more those likes, shares and comments are shown in their friends feeds.
I’m using Kite Adventures‘ fan page for several of these examples because their consistently excellent job generating effective posts inspired this entry.
1) Always Post Pictures
That is, if you’re not posting video. The two media that people like most online are videos and pictures. You’ll notice on their page that even if they are just asking a question they post a related picture.
2) Ask Questions
Take a look at the comment rate on the posts that ask a question verses the ones that just share information. Questions are an invitation to interact.
3) Balance Business Offers with Just For Fun Stuff
Generally a good rule of thumb is to sprinkle in offers about your business about one in every 4 to 5 posts. Kiteboarding Adventures takes it one step further by integrating fun stuff into their offering posts.
4) Create Themed Photo Albums
If you are having a special event create a photo album for it. Post pictures to the album throughout the event. Each photo added shows up in your feed and the group are all stored together in an album. As of very recently Facebook no longer allows fan pages to tag personal profiles in posts or albums. You can invite participants to share albums or pictures on their profiles.
You may also want to create albums for ongoing themes. For example if you are an instructor an album of “Kiteboarding Lessons Firsts” where you post pictures of your many happy customers grinning ear to ear at their first water start, turn etc. Or even better put on a helmet cam and catch their firsts on video.
Resorts, does your spot have particularly gorgeous sunrises or sunsets? Consider creating an album for sunsets. Next to babies and kittens I’ve found people like and comment on sunsets the most.
5) Encourage Fans to Tag You in Their Photos
F-One Kiteboarding Americas is great at this. Seventy percent of people surveyed indicated that recommendations from friends and family significantly influence their buying decisions. These days with the popularity of websites like Yelp more and more people are getting used to following online recommendations. When fans broadcast how much they love you on your fan page it goes to all their friends’ feeds.
Bonus Tip
Double check when you are “liking” other pages that you are using facebook as yourself and not as your fan page. When you are accidentally signed in as your fan page your likes show up there instead of on your personal page. You don’t want random unrelated “likes” listed on your fan page. It confuses customers.
